June 08, 2020

Emterra Group launches 'real-life' online shopping experience to help customers choose which bin is the right fit

At first glance, Emterra’s websites look and interact like a traditional online corporate website. However, they are anything but! These sites were strategically designed to offer users an online shopping opportunity through each site’s respective “Store” and feature Augmented Reality (AR) technology.

The Emterra Store showcases the products and services that Emterra has available like material hauling and transfer and hand sanitizer. For three featured products — front end bins, roll-off bins and totes —shoppers can experience these with our new interactive AR technology. AR allows users to create a real-world and interactive experience using their mobile devices. AR places 3-D models of our recycling, waste and organics bins into a physical space seen through the camera lens of our customers’ smartphone or tablet.

Imagine you are trying on a t-shirt in a change room, you get to experience how it looks and fits. Just like trying on a t-shirt, AR lets you see, in real-time, how our bins look, fit and can function on your driveway, a back alley, in a garage – anywhere really!

AR is both a technology and an opportunity.

“It adds a bit of fun, but it is also an instrument that drives engagement and enhances our customer’s experience,” explains Paulina Leung, Emterra Group’s Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Business Development. “We are the first company in the waste management industry to use this technology to modernize how consumers can shop online for waste management services and we are looking forward to measuring its success across our business.”  

As consumers, our adoption of tech is growing, and tools like this allow us to visualize and interact with an item before making a purchasing decision. In an instant, our customers can test out a product and learn more about it to see if it’s a good fit for them. Ultimately, it simplifies the decision-making process.

For us, this instrument helps eliminate doubts before we deploy a truck loaded with a bin – Will a bin and truck fit in a space? What other obstacles and hazards like unmovable barriers, trees and overhead lines may obstruct delivery and service of our product? And, as online shoppers, we want delivery as quickly as possible after making our purchase. We believe AR will speed up our service and offer our customers a fun and memorable shopping experience that cannot be achieved in an offline shop. 

As the world adjusts to the new realities of COVID-19, this sort of technology is becoming increasingly valuable. With more and more consumers turning towards the realm of online shopping to fill their everyday needs, AR can make the user experience feel seamless and a lot less daunting.  

To access the Emterra’s AR app, users will need to visit our website using either an iOS or Android mobile device with the latest software update (https://www.emterra.ca/collections; https://www.emterrausa.com/collections). After entering our Store, users will see a banner across our front end, roll-off and tote products. Select the product you want to test. Now, launch the AR app by selecting the magnolia symbol in the top right corner of the product – AR is now launching.

Users can use their fingers to move the product into place and to expand and shrink the product to scale.

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